|
Quick links:
Research only available
online!
To read the whole chapter, purchase the book! On sale today for
$4.99!
|
Women’s names began filling my scribbled pages as I researched the
300-plus women mentioned in Scripture. The most easily identifiable women
were barren temporarily, then later blessed with children. In most cases,
their barrenness and how God resolved it appeared to be one of the main
reasons she was present in Scripture. The point? God used infertility to
show His miraculous power and to carry out His plan for human history.
These women are described in Women who were temporarily infertile.
The biggest surprise was I could find only one woman who was
mentioned as never having children—Michal, first wife of King David. That
certainly doesn’t mean there weren’t more, because surely there were. But
the details are missing, so we’ll never know who they were. Read Michal’s
lone story in A woman who remained childless.
Hannah is the
most notable infertile woman in the Bible. We see the depth of her pain
physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Hannah’s story is told in
more detail in this chapter because so many aspects of her plight call to
us from the depths of our own pain. When I started my research, I intended
to title this chapter “All the Infertile Women of the Bible,” thinking I
could compile every woman who struggled with infertility. But digging in,
I realized the lack of details on most biblical women prevented me from
discerning if they were mothers or not. A large number of women are
mentioned only once in Scripture, such as Job’s beautiful daughters,
Jemima, Kezia, Kerenhappuch. They are listed only by name, not whether or
not they became mothers eventually. Thus, an absolutely complete list of
the infertile women of the Bible will have to remain open-ended. Their
stories will remain untold, but the women whose stories we know have
spoken to barren women through the ages.
Women who were temporarily infertile
Elizabeth
Elizabeth and
Zechariah “were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s
commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no children,
because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years”
(Luke 1:6-7). A godly couple, barren, and old—the perfect setting for a
miracle! And that’s just what happened. While performing his priestly
duties, Zechariah is visited by an angel announcing that “your prayer has
been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give
him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will
rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the
Lord” (vv. 13-15). Elizabeth becomes the mother of John the Baptist, the
long-prophesied one who would prepare the people for the coming of Christ.
Had
Elizabeth become a mother in her youth, the news of this post-menopausal
baby probably would have been amazing, but not really in the miraculous
category. God’s plan was to keep her womb closed until both Elizabeth and
Zechariah (and everyone who knew them) had given up on their chance of
children, and it was precisely the absence of previous children that made
the coming of this one so remarkable. After John’s birth and naming
(complete with a tongue-loosing miracle for the new dad), “the neighbors
were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people
were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered
about it, asking, ‘What then is this child going to be?’ For the Lord’s
hand was with him” (vv. 65-66). (See Luke 1.)
Manoah’s wife, Samson’s mother
It’s
surprising that we’re never given this barren woman’s name, because her
faith is certainly worth admiring. Twice an angel appeared to her to
provide details of her upcoming pregnancy, and twice the angel explains
that she will carry the burden of raising the child in strict accordance
to the Nazirite vow, a consecration to God that would begin in the womb
for this baby….
(Nine biblical
women are highlighted in this section of this chapter.)
A
woman who remained childless: Michal
She was a
princess and the wife of a king, but her life was no Cinderella story. The
daughter of King Saul, she fell in love with handsome young David, the
warrior destined to be king. As a prize for his military success, she was
given in marriage to David. Her loyalty was wrapped up in their mutual
love, and to protect him, she helped him escape Saul’s crazed vengeance in
one memorable incident (1 Sam. 19). But once David was in hiding, Saul
repossessed her to strike back at David.
An example to us all: Hannah’s story
What a gift
God has given us in the story of Hannah! Her 11th century B.C.
journey closely resembles the struggles of 21st century
infertile women. She was often consumed by her thoughts of infertility—she
went alone to the temple and cried her heart out to God. She made drastic
promises to the Lord in hopes she would be given a child. She was stabbed
with the pain of watching other women bear children with no problem. In
Hannah, we see a complete picture of the pain of infertility. This is how
her story goes….
Further research
available online only!
This list of
women got their fair share of press in Scripture, but we’re never told if
they were mothers. Because motherhood was central to a woman’s purpose in
society, the absence of such defining information leads me to think
perhaps these women were childless. Their presence in the Bible was based
on who they were and what they did, not simply on whether or not they
produced offspring.
Women who may have been childless
This list
doesn’t include every woman in Scripture whose motherhood was
undetermined. Instead, these are the most significant women, the ones we
can piece together something about their lives and contributions to the
events of their time. The interesting thing is that their infertility is
not the central point in their lives. Most of these women were faithful to
their God and are prime examples of remarkable service. We can learn much
from their commitment to give their lives purpose and meaning by searching
out and fulfilling God’s plan for them, even though it appears children
were not part of that plan.
Anna
A prophetess
who lived at the Temple in Jerusalem, our only insights about Anna are
three verses, enough to let us know she was almost assuredly childless.
Married for seven years, she was then widowed for the rest of her life.
Some commentaries interpret the text’s wording of “a
widow until she was eighty-four” to mean she was 84 when she
encountered Jesus and His earthly parents in the Temple; others interpret
the original Greek to mean she had been widowed 84 years. Either way, the
lady was old, well past child-bearing years, and content to serve her Lord
constantly and completely. She literally lived at the Temple, worshipping
and praising God every day. She walked up to Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus
at the Temple and immediately proclaimed that this was the long-awaited
Christ. We can admire the depth of spirit she possessed after many decades
of dedication to the study of God’s Word. She moved beyond her loss,
filling her life with love and service. (See Luke 2:36-38.)
Dorcas (or Tabitha)
This
benevolent woman was known for her ministry in Joppa, a port town on the
coast of the Mediterranean Sea which had its share of widows and
fatherless children, probably due to the deaths of men who made their
living on the sea. We don’t know her age, but we can wonder if she, too,
was a childless widow, since neither husband nor children are mentioned.
Her gift is her ability to sew clothing for the needy. When she dies
suddenly, the disciples send for Peter, who had just arrived in nearby
Lydda (10 miles east). He came to Joppa and restored Dorcas to life and
ministry. (See Acts 9:36-42.)
Esther
As a Jewish
girl adopted by her cousin Mordecai, Esther probably had dreams of
marrying a Jewish young man and having a half dozen kids. Yet her path
took a radical, irreversible diversion when her beauty brought her to the
Persian palace to be considered as the new queen for King Xerxes. The
purpose of the book of Esther is to tell the story of how she rose to the
throne for the divine purpose of rescuing the entire Jewish population
from a ruthless plot to murder them. But since the book covers the events
of several years, it seems logical that if she had birthed royal children,
it would have been noted. A half-Jewish prince or princess in a Persian
palace would be something to talk about! The book ends abruptly, leaving
us wanting to know the rest of the story. (See Esther.)
Huldah
Huldah was a
woman in the right place at the right time to say the right thing for the
Lord. She lived in Jerusalem, was married, and known as a Hebrew
prophetess, like Miriam and Deborah were. No children are mentioned. She
was a contemporary of prophets Zephaniah and Jeremiah, and Jewish
tradition says she was a woman of academia who taught school. One day, a
priest, a scribe, and some royal servants came knocking on her door. These
men were sent by King Josiah to find someone who could interpret the
Scriptures found hidden in the crumbling walls of the Temple. (Josiah had
instigated massive refurbishing of the temple built by Solomon, which had
fallen into neglect.)
One
commentary said that other prophets were too far away, so a prophet close
at hand was needed immediately. She had distinguished herself as a woman
of God, and when the visitors came, she spoke the truth from her Lord:
Destruction and ruin would come upon the land, and Jerusalem will be
destroyed. But because of Josiah’s heart for God, he would not see the
devastation in his lifetime. Josiah immediately swept away the pagan
temples, monuments, and altars built by his forefathers, some by King
Solomon 300 years before. Passover was celebrated more purely, completely,
and exuberantly than it had been in about 500 years (since the days of
Samuel the prophet). Huldah must have rejoiced to know she had been a part
of bringing revival to her people.
But
she knew it would be short-lived. As predicted, the reprieve from
desolation was a mere window in time. Just 13 years later, Josiah was
killed in battle. He rested in peace, but the country fell into ruins.
(See 2 Kings 22-24 and parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 34.)
Jehosheba
Every child
should have a doting aunt like Aunt Jehosheba was to little Joash. Both of
them were of royal blood, and little Joash was even one of the possible
heirs to the throne. But they lived in savage times. The reigning queen
had sat on the throne with her husband/king before he died, then ruled
through her son/king before he died. Now, Athaliah claimed the throne as
her own and set out to kill everyone who had any claim to it. This meant
she killed her own grandchildren (Joash was one) and other blood
relatives. Godly Jehosheba managed to kidnap Joash, who was only about a
year old, before Athaliah got to him. Joash was hidden in the Lord’s
temple for six years since Jehosheba’s husband was the priest in charge of
the entire temple. At age 7, Jehosheba’s husband, Jehoiada, brought forth
the little king, gathered the armies, and overthrew wicked Athaliah in one
day. Jehosheba and Jehoiada have no children listed, but what she did to
protect her nephew brought godliness back to the kingdom of Judah, at
least for a few decades while Joash reigned. (See 2 Kings 11:1-21; 2
Chronicles 22:10-24:1.)
Joanna
As a follower
of Christ, she joined with the disciples and women who went from town to
town as Jesus preached. She was the wife of Cuza, who managed King Herod’s
household, so she was likely a woman of considerable wealth. She and other
women were helping to support Jesus’ ministry from their own pocketbooks.
It’s unlikely she would have felt free to follow Jesus’ traveling ministry
if she’d had children at home. She surely must have been one of the women
who stood at the foot of the cross as Jesus died, because she is one of
three named women who went to embalm Jesus at the tomb, only to find He
had risen. (See Luke 8:1-3, 23:55-24:12.)
Miriam
As the older
sister of Moses, Miriam saw a lifetime of remarkable works of God, from
the rescue of her infant brother from the Nile River by Pharoah’s
daughter, to the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, to the opening of
the Red Sea, to the encounters Moses had with God. Miriam saw it all. She
was quite human, though, and her privileged role as sister of God’s chosen
leader didn’t ensure she was always a bastion of unshakeable faith.
Undoubtedly, though, Miriam was the most vocal female leader of the
Israelite nation in her day. Though the Bible doesn’t mention her husband,
“tradition has it that she became the wife of Hur, who with Aaron held up
the hands of Moses.”(Edith Deen, All of the Women of the Bible,
HarperSanFrancisco, 1983, page 353)
Tradition doesn’t suggest any children, though, so we’re fairly safe in
assuming Miriam was never a mother. Her life was far from empty because
every day was full of matters related to helping Moses govern the people.
Centuries later in the years of Micah the prophet, God sent this word to
Israel, “I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of
slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam” (Micah 6:4).
Miriam’s role as one of the top three leaders for the millions of
wandering Israelites elevates her to a status untouched by any other woman
in Scripture. (See Exodus 2, 15 and Numbers 12, 20, 26.)
Moses’ Egyptian mother
We know her
only as Pharoah’s daughter in Scripture, the woman who adopted Moses. And
though she was surely a worshipper of Egyptian idols, God chose her to
participate unknowingly in a divine plan to protect the Hebrew child who
would be the liberator of His enslaved people. We have no record of her
barrenness, but we also have no record that she bore or adopted additional
children. When you consider her reaction to finding a three-month-old
slave-child in a basket on the Nile, we can only wonder if her deep mercy
was a result of her deep pain of infertility. Maybe she saw this baby as a
benevolence handed down from her gods in answer to her prayers for a
child. But why risk her life by sparing a slave’s baby? As a princess, she
could have adopted an Egyptian baby any day of the week. And it wasn’t
like she could hide the truth from Pharoah—Moses scampered around the
palace like the other royal children and grandchildren. If she already had
other children, her need to mother Moses would surely not have been so
strong. We can only guess that Moses must have been one adorable baby for
her to risk Pharoah’s wrath. Exodus 2:2 seems to support that, because
Jochebed, Moses’ Hebrew mother, “saw that he was a fine child” so she hid
him in the basket. In this case, royal infertility had a divine purpose.
(See Exodus 2:1-10.)
Priscilla
This woman
from Italy and her husband, Aquila, became great friends with Paul and
exceptional leaders in the new church. Though she is never labeled as
barren, neither are her offspring ever mentioned. Five of seven times she
is listed before Aquila, which may indicate she carried the greater
responsibility in the church. In Romans, Paul sent his greetings to this
couple and the church that met in their home, then he highly praises
Priscilla and Aquila for risking their lives for his sake. “Not only I but
all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.” Their lives may
have been childless, but they were not empty or purposeless. Instead, this
couple made eternal contributions to the first century Christian church.
(See Romans 16:3-5, Acts 18, 1 Corinthians 16:19, 2 Timothy 4:19.)
Samaritan woman at the well
Jesus had one
of His longest recorded dialogues with a woman as He spoke to the infamous
woman in this passage. When He struck up a conversation with her, He knew
He was going to change her life, but she didn’t. She only found it curious
that a Jewish man would bother talking with the likes of her, the one
probably known in her village as “that woman.” Jesus pegged her life and
lifestyle when He said she’d had five husbands and was living with still
another man. Was her barrenness one of the reasons for her marital
dissatisfaction? Was she pushed aside for more fertile women once or twice
until she became known as used goods, no longer appealing to men who would
respect her? If she had children, Jesus never mentioned them, and neither
did she. If she’d had children from other marriages, especially young
children, it seems they would have looked forward to going to the well
with Mama every day to draw water. But she was alone. Jesus offered her
spiritual healing and “living water,” and she was so impressed, she ran to
town with news of Jesus. She earned back her respect as a woman who could
be trusted, because her neighbors later said, “‘We no longer believe just
because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know
that this man really is the Savior of the world’” (v. 42). (See John
4:7-42.)
Sapphira
Ananias and
Sapphira were participants in the early Jerusalem church. In the eleven
verses that tell their story (a significant amount for minor characters),
nothing is mentioned of their offspring. The couple sold some property,
and Ananias delivered the money to the church himself, claiming he was
giving the total sum to God. Peter was given divine insight to know
Ananias had in fact kept back part of the profit. The sin was not in
keeping some back, but in lying that he was giving it all. Confronted with
the truth, Ananias fell dead on the spot and was immediately buried by
young men in the church (not by any of his own sons). A few hours later,
Sapphira came to the church, unaware of her husband’s death. When asked
the price of the land, she lied, too, which proves they made a prior
agreement with each other to hide the truth. Peter revealed to her that
her husband had been caught in the same lie and was now dead and buried.
She died immediately and was buried beside him. (See Acts 5:1-11.)
Sheerah
This daughter
of Beriah lived in about 1450 B.C. and made herself notable because she
directed the building of several towns, which was certainly not the
average job for a woman who lived 3,500 years ago. We aren’t told if she
was married or if she was a mother. (See 1 Chronicles 7:24.)
Vashti
Formerly the
queen of Persia, King Xerxes divorced her because she wouldn’t appear
before him and his noblemen to parade her beauty at his feast, which was
more like an orgy. Jewish sources indicate she was requested to appear
naked before this crowd of drunken men, clothed with only the royal crown
on her head. Persian wives were kept in seclusion in each other’s company
during such festivities, so the king’s inebriated request was far from
proper, even if she were to appear clothed. The king’s advisers offered
poor advice, doling out much harsher consequences than the offense
deserved. An irrevocable law was passed so that Vashti could never enter
the king’s presence again.
No
reference is made to any children she may have born for the king, and we
know nothing else of Vashti after this early reference in a book about
Esther’s rise to the throne. Producing royal heirs would have made her a
more valuable player on the royal scene, and the advisers might have had a
harder time convincing the king to depose her. (See Esther 1-2.)
Widow with two mites
Jesus observed this unnamed widow as He and the disciples watched people
in the Jerusalem temple. We know she was poor, because she gave all she
had, only two small copper coins worth a fraction of a penny. We know she
was a widow, though we don’t have a clue about her age. Finally, we know
she was faithful, because Jesus praised her giving more than all the
others. What we don’t know is if she was a mother. Adult children would
have had some responsibility to provide financially for their widowed
mother. If she were a young widow with children at home, Jesus might have
said, “she put in all she and her children had to live on.” Giving what
she would have spent on food for her children would be an important aspect
of faith for Jesus to note. Her belief in God’s constancy to provide for
her needs is unparalleled, so that “today the world knows more about the
poor widow than about the richest man in Jerusalem in her day.” (All of
the Women of the Bible, page 58) (See Mark 12:41-44, Luke 21:1-4.)
|
